Set PYTHONPATH

To set the enviornment variable PYTHONPATH in bash:
export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/modules

just setting PYTHONPATH=/path/to/modules won't work - you have to use export. If you want a variable passed on to a child processes it has to show up when you type 'env'

But since you used export - next time you start python, '/path/to/modules' will automatically be appended to the front of your sys.path


Obviously '/path/to/modules' should be the full path to whereever you're keeping your modules - something like /home/clayg/lib. (relative path's will work, but not ~/ , probably best to avoid both) You can separate multiple directories with a colon:

export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/modules:/path/to/other/modules

Setting python path is handy if, for example, you are using setuptools or distutils to install python modules on a system which you do not have root privileges.

Just download the source dist and find the directory with setup.py, then run:
python setup.py build

Then re-locate the folder with the __init__.py (usually ./build/lib/packagename) to your /path/to/modules folder.

if you want your PYTHONPATH to stick around - you should add it to .bashrc

import packagename should be good to go!